Earth Hour spreads the word: Go dark to save the planet

The eco-internet is all a-buzz with this month’s upcoming Earth Hour 2009 occurring in major cities across the globe. The “event”, scheduled for 8:30pm on March 28th, calls for people and business everywhere to “turn out the lights” in a show of global solidarity in support of the battle against climate change. However, for those who do not live within the “participating cities”, what then?

But first a little history: Earth Hour began in 2007, when approximately 2.2 million homes and businesses throughout Sydney, Australia, switched off their lights for exactly one hour. The event was hailed as a global success, sparking the initiative to grow for 2008 with 50 million across the world people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness for one hour while the world was forced to recognize the reality that the people of the world DO in fact have something to say regarding global warming.

Marketers are already agreeing that 2009 will see an even larger jump in numbers, with cities across the globe increasingly “signing up” to participate. The Earth Hour campaign is already generating a strong online presence: every seven seconds a new mention about Earth Hour appears on the web; Earth Hour social profiles have over 230,000 friends and followers with a new connection every 20 seconds; and an Earth Hour video is viewed every 20 seconds online.

Earth Hour organizers are forming huge campaigns across the web, from YouTube to Facebook, urging bloggers, podcasters, online video makers, mobile users and online social networkers to spread the word. The directive: this coming December, world leaders meet in Copenhagen to agree on a post-Kyoto policy for tackling climate change. Earth Hour believes that nne billion people voting with their light switch during Earth Hour will create a powerful mandate for our leaders to take strong and decisive action on climate change in Copenhagen.

“Social media has proved it can be a powerful force for driving change, but when the stakes are as high as they have ever been, we really need the support of the online community for Earth Hour this year,” said Earth Hour Executive Director Andy Ridley. “The open source nature of Earth Hour allows people to be highly creative in the way they drive the campaign forward. We encourage you to download, share and create your own material in support of Earth Hour.”

This is all very exciting news, of course. For someone like myself who is trying to be well-adept in the “green” movement, the notion of scores of like-minded, every day individuals from cities across the globe taking a position – albeit a simplistic one – in the face of climate change is inspiring. The question remains though: what about the rest of us? Is there room for the clusters of suburbanites, living day-to-day amidst a domino maze of strip malls and suburban sprawl, to take part?

I live in a mediocre condo-complex in a mediocre suburb in a mediocre county. Would my friends and neighbors even know what was going on if my lights went out for one hour? Hell, I caught my share of sneers and grimaces from displaying an “Obama/Biden” magnet on my car last fall. I  still cannot convince people not to shop at Wal-Mart (which is literally down the street from my door), and most people around me tend to think bombing…er…I mean drilling for oil is a good thing. I suppose the question is that is the point of the thing, the purpose, falling on deaf  ears – or in this case, blind eyes?

Man, I wish I lived in Portland.

In any case, Earth Hour, you have my vote. Let’s just hope you can round up more of my friends and neighbors than, say, American Idol.

“The global online community can be the catalyst to Earth Hour 2009 reaching one billion people and delivering on its goal of compelling world leaders to really tackle climate change,” Mr Ridley said.

Check out some of the viral campaigns going on online for Earth Hour:

• Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Earth-Hour/6867084435?ref=mf)
• YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/earthhour2009)
• MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/earthhour)
• flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthhour_global/)
• Twitter (http://twitter.com/EarthHour)

For more information, visit Earth Hour (http://www.earthhour.org) website.